When jetting a fluid onto a heated surface it is highly desirable for 100% of the fluid to vaporize so that liquid is not discharged from the vaporizing device. The problem lies in that the vaporizing heater must be small enough to heat up extremely quickly, yet has enough surface area to catch all fluid and fluid droplets that are being ejected onto the heater element. A simple planar heater loses efficiency due to the margins of the heater not being wetted by the impinging fluid ejected onto the heater. Accordingly, the heater must be made somewhat oversize to compensate for any spread or misdirection in the fluid stream ejected onto the heater. Unused heater surface degrades heater efficiency by radiation/convection heat loss to the surrounding environment. Accordingly, what is needed is a heater element of minimum size that will capture 100% of the ejected fluid stream, and will also have minimal un-wetted surface area. A heater element having a minimum mass is desirable in order to reduce the amount of energy required to raise the heater element to its operating temperature.
Rapid heating of the heater element is also essential to assuring that all of the liquid ejected onto the heater element is vaporized. Complete vaporization of the fluid is important in order to avoid entraining liquid droplets in the vapor stream from the vaporization device. In some applications, the discharge of liquid is not only undesirable, but may be detrimental to the user. In order to avoid the discharge of liquid droplets from a vaporization device, the stream of fluid ejected onto the surface of the heater element must be efficiently captured by the heater element, and completely vaporized at approximately the same rate as the fluid arrives on the surface of the heater element.
In view of the foregoing, embodiments of the disclosure provide a heater element for a vaporizing device, a vaporizing device containing the heater element, and a method for vaporizing fluid ejected by an ejection head. The heater element includes a conductive material having a concave area, wherein the concave area of the heater element captures and vaporizes fluid ejected from an ejection head in the vaporization device. The concave area of the heating element has a cavity volume that is at least sufficient to retain an entire volume of liquid to be vaporized.
Another embodiment of the disclosure provides a vaporization device that includes a housing body, a mouthpiece attached to the housing body, and a heater element disposed adjacent to the mouthpiece for vaporizing fluid ejected from an ejection head onto the heater element. The heater element includes a conductive material having a concave area, wherein the concave area of the heater element captures and vaporizes fluid ejected from the ejection head in the vaporization device. The concave area of the heating element has a cavity volume that is at least sufficient to retain an entire volume of liquid to be vaporized.
A further embodiment of the disclosure provides a method for vaporizing a fluid ejected by an ejection head so that substantially all of the fluid ejected by the ejection head is vaporized. The method includes providing a vaporization device having an ejection head and a vaporizing heater element adjacent to the ejection head. Fluid is ejected by the ejection head onto the heater element. The heater element is activated during fluid ejection in order to vaporizes substantially all of the fluid ejected onto the heater element. The heater element includes a conductive material having a concave area, wherein a concave area of the heater element captures and vaporizes fluid ejected from the ejection head in the vaporization device. The concave area of the heating element has a cavity volume that is at least sufficient to retain an entire volume of liquid to be vaporized.
In some embodiments, the concave area of the heater element is provided by an open-ended hexahedral-shaped heater element.
In another embodiment, the concave area of the heater element is provided by a dimpled heater element.
In yet another embodiment, the concave area of the heater element is provided by a conical heater element.
In some embodiments, the concave area of the heater element has a volume ranging from about 0.2 cubic centimeters (cc) to about 5 cc.